Salman Butt kicks aside Rohit Sharma as he names India's best player of spin-bowling
Published - 09 Aug 2024, 02:11 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:17 AM
Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt has recently spoken about India's ODI series loss to Sri Lanka. The number one ranked ODI team fell to the trail by spin from the Lankan bowlers.
They managed to tie the first ODI with the team not scoring the one-run run required from 14 balls. They lost the second ODI by 32 runs as they were not able to chase 241 to win and the third by 110 runs as they needed 249 to win.
Barring Rohit Sharma none of the batters looked assured against the Sri Lankan spinners, who in their home conditions and the pitches offering decent turns, cashed in on the opportunity.
The Indian middle-order especially could not dominate the middle overs after a good start from the openers in the first two games. The batting collapsed thrice in three matches once the opening stand was broken.
While discussing about India's ODI series loss, Salman Butt said that the best Indian player who could have countered the Lankan spinners on that track did not play for India -Suryakumar Yadav. Under his leadership, India won the T20I series 3-0 with Suryakumar Yadav scoring 92 runs at a strike rate of 195.74.
India Need To Sort Out Their Pitches: Salman Butt
"India needs to first sort out their pitches. Their batters have faced problems on spinning tracks. In particular, if you are playing on spinning tracks, the toss becomes important. Batting is easier for the team batting first, batting becomes difficult for the team batting second.
"The pitch deteriorates with the players running on the track which in turn creates the rough and then it becomes more difficult. So that is also a factor but then you need people who can play spin well," said Salman Butt on his YouTube channel.
He picked out Suryakumar Yadav as the best player of spin in this current Indian team and said that not playing him was a blunder by India. SKY used the sweep shot to good effect in the T20I series against the Lankan bowlers.
"The best batter of spin in this Indian middle-order at this point is Suryakumar Yadav and not playing him in the middle-order was a blunder especially against Sri Lanka, especially on these pitches. He sweeps the ball so well, he plays good inside-out shots, his overall game against spin is very good as well.
"And you need that type of player at number five or six, especially in the ODI game. India have good players against spin but not all of them are Suryakumar Yadav. So I think not playing him was a blunder," stressed the former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt.
Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav was appointed by the next Indian T20I captain by Gautam Gambhir as soon as he assumed the position of Team India head coach. However, in the same press conference. Ajit Agarkar also said that they are not looking at Suryakumar Yadav as a batter in the ODI format.
India plays only three more ODI matches before the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 next year. With their participation in doubt, it will be interesting to see how they address this problem against the spin that was exposed in the series against Sri Lanka.
